Parkway Theater marquee, photo courtesy of venue
Tour Dates
03/26 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
03/27 - Toronto, ON @ Longboat Hall 03/28 - Montreal, QC @ L’Astral 03/30 - New York, NY @ Elsewhere 04/02 - Bentonville, AR @ The Momentary Read More
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Anna Meredith and her band were in town at the Parkway Theater promoting her latest album FIBS. The tour was delayed somewhat by a world shutdown and in the midst of canceling the shows the band’s concert T-shirts went missing. They still haven’t reappeared but that didn’t prevent Meredith and her band from going back on the road.
A little about Meredith. Quite a resume. You can go on her website (annameredith.com) and get a good idea how talented she is. I like the fact that she isn’t shy about trying anything, musically. A classically trained musician with a master’s degree from the Royal College of Music, she is currently the composer in residence for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. But don’t think she doesn’t have a sense of fun. She composed a concerto for the beatboxer Schlomo. For the 2012 BBC Proms, Meredith had all the members of the National Youth Orchestra put down their instruments to clap their way through her composition “Hands Free”.
Meredith didn’t arrive in Minneapolis with an eighty piece orchestra. Just her band of five: her on clarinet, drums, xylophone and a synthesizer, Maddie Cutter on cello, Tom Kelly on tuba, Jack Ross on electric guitar, and Sam Wilson on drums. Quite the setup. Not sure I’ve seen a similar line up. They are a tight group, though. You could tell by how much they liked playing together.
Their sound was less classical and more electronic, experimental. There was an affinity to English synth bands of the 80’s and 90’s, but with the tuba and drums I couldn’t help think it is the kind of music you would hear at band camp when everyone is on break and breaking all the rules. Case in point was “Nautilus” from Meredith’s debut album Varmints and “Paramour” from FIBS, both sounding like marches sped up by musicians who want to funk it up.
There was no set musical theme for the evening. Meredith’s songs had an eclectic feel where the only rule was to try a little bit of everything. Why not? Why not throw in a xylophone on top of dance music? Why not feature Cutter on cello, then Kelly on drums? Why not an 80’s throwback in “Inhale Exhale”, where Meredith and the whole band sing with an airy breeze over a propelling drum beat? Why not break through musical genres with a buoyant spirit? Why not wear zebra-themed outfits where the stripes are the bars of a musical score, zigzagging across the white fabric? And for an encore why not a medley of cheesy English covers songs, songs I never heard before, but didn’t mean there still wasn’t room for a good time in the dancing beat?
The converted movie theater didn’t lend itself to the movement of a dance club, but as Meredith reminded the crowd. The music is still “seat-shufflable.”
dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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